About Me

I hope to inspire you to create the home of your dreams - both inside and out - and to sew something wonderful! Here you will find things I find beautiful as well as creative ideas on how to make your home the place you have dreamed about.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Can you believe we are only a few days away from the half-way point of 2011? The first six months of this year have just flown past way too quickly. Summer is officially here and it won’t be long until another holiday season will be upon us. Yikes!

At the beginning of the year I participated in The Nester’s 2011 Home Goals Party. I am guessing many of you did too. You may remember instead of making a laundry list of things to buy and projects to complete around my house, I choose to create seven simple goals which focused on appreciating my surroundings and using what I already had to its fullest potential.

Since half the year is gone, I thought it would be a good time to revisit these goals to see how I am doing. More importantly, I also hope to inspire you to do the same!

Here is my list with an update of my progress:

Plan my garden before plantingI am happy to say this goal has been achieved. Instead of randomly buying plants as in years past, we have designated sections of the garden for herbs, vegetables, and ornamentals. It was worth the small amount of planning and I will continue to plan before planting from now on.

Use the herbs I plantThis one is in the “kind of category.” I have used some basil and a small amount of the oregano. The dill, cilantro, thyme and parsley, however, have been neglected. Time to get cooking!

Be a tourist in my own townThis is the goal on which I have made the least progress. I hope to remedy this during the coming summer months by taking advantage of all the local things my home town has to offer.

Organize and clean outI have been doing a pretty good job. I started the year off with a bang by cleaning out a lot of unused items but have slowly let things return to normal. I need to regain my enthusiasm and continue where I left off.

Learn how to use my sewing machine attachmentsI have played around with some of the attachments but as you can see from the picture above I definitely have a ways to go. I have to admit it has been fun seeing all the different stitches this old machine can sew!

Learn how to use my camera settings

My photo taking skills have improved as I have moved beyond the auto setting and I am now playing with the aperture setting. Next on the list is learning how to adjust the shutter speed.

Continue to remember a house is just a house. It is the people who live inside and the friends who come to visit which are most important.

I consider this to be my most important goal of the year. I try to remind myself daily to remember what is truly most special in my life.

There you have it. Overall I believe I am doing well but have room for improvement. Luckily there is still time as there are as many months ahead in 2011 as have already past.

So, how about you? How are you doing on your 2011 goals? I would love to hear the goals you have accomplished and the ones you need to start focusing on. Thanks for sharing!

12 comments:

Every single one of your goals could apply to me, too! You've accomplished a lot in six months. Your garden looks great!

I do believe that made some goals but I'm embarrassed to admit that I'll have to look back to see what they are. Chances are I've accomplished a few. One that I know I need to get busy doing is learning how to use the embroidery attachment on my sewing machine. You've inspired me to find my list of goals to see how I'm doing.

You have accomplished a lot in that time period. I really should have written my goals down because they are kind of all over the place when it comes to decorating but I feel like I am on track with my family and family events. This year is blowing by!-Shelley

Your garden looks really lovely,it really is an inspiration.I will be taking away the flowers in our backyard garden and plans to replace them with green plants that are not hard to maintain. I will plan first before buying, just like you did.

I was just thinking about our goals - how fitting. Since we "just moved in" - ok, a year ago... our goals are many. We did our major project for the summer - new windows (see post). Also started a garden, re-did flower bed - and endless painting! Your garden is beautiful! We hope to add herbs too. Enjoy the week!

Thanks for sharing your goals; it's a good reminder to keep reaching for them. It is so easy for me to get distracted. I have some rhubarb in my garden I need to use this week plus a million more projects in my mind!

A really great post to put things in perspective too. I cannot believe half the year is gone! I love your goals. I am copy them...as I need to work on all of them myself...wonder if I can manage it in 6 months!